Israel Approves Official Mixed-Gender Prayer Space at Western Wall

The Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, will soon have a prayer space for mixed-gender ceremonies and non-Orthodox Jews following a historical Israeli Cabinet decision on Sunday to finally allow such an area. Advocates stated that this decision marked a significant part of history for the government to support liberal forms of Judaism.

Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism, said of the proposal: “This is a landmark decision for Jews throughout the globe”. Unlike in the US, most Jews in Israel, while secular, follow Orthodox traditions.

“The decision will help heal a rift that developed over this issue between the government and Jews who are not Orthodox but desired access to the Wall”.

Correspondents say the dispute over the wall became a symbol of the greater tensions in Israeli society between ultra-Orthodox Jews, who abide by a very strict interpretation of Jewish law, and more modern elements of Judaism. The new site will be created with a new entrance to the Western Wall area, supervised by a new management consisting of different representative members from the Reform and Conservative movements.

Although the gender-segregation will continue at the current prayer site, in the new prayer area there is no prohibition against women using torah scrolls or worshipping alongside men if they wish to do so.

A Jewish woman wears a prayer shawl as she prays at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem’s Old City. In comparison, more than 3 million people visited the Western Wall plaza in 2013, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

The Consulate General of Israel, Los Angeles, convened Sunday’s press conference with the cooperation of Limmud FSU, which was holding a three-day gathering for Jewish learning of mostly Russians in Pasadena, hosting Sharansky as one of its leading speakers.

“Ever since the fringe and vociferous group of Women of the Wall started its mass-media activity”, the wall “went from being a unifying site to one of incessant quarrels”, he said.

After Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, it created a plaza adjacent to the wall, that includes a wide men-only and a smaller women-only prayer section.

Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said he was “thrilled” with the agreement, also describing it as a historic departure for Israel.

The new rules will put the egalitarian area under control of a new group.

“It’s not going to be run by an Orthodox rabbi”, Pruce said.

He also said, the Times of Israel reported, “The Reform are responsible for the awful intermarriage that we’ve been witnessing in the United States”.

“We are in an ongoing battle for recognition of our communities and denominations, and this is a starting point for our legal and moral demand for full equality”, he said. This whole problem of the Reform and Conservatives has not existed in the State of Israel until now, and I have no intention that it will occur now.